Authors

In this holiday issue, we encapsulate the beauty, the history, and the issues across South Island. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and we have left areas around Kaikoura for obvious reasons, but readers may find the 69 pictures - from page 4 to page 15 - an useful aid to get the gist of Te Waipounamu. Yes, this is the Maori name of New Zealand's South Island, which means "the waters of greenstone".

The Migrant Times was launched in June. We have published 13 issues till now. Our aim has been to put in the mainstream - the issues, news, views, struggles, successes, and celebrations of the migrant communities in New Zealand. Below we recap what all we published in the year 2016.

The history of Love Food Hate Waste Campaign began in 2007 in the UK, and it is being run currently in Victoria, New South Wales and Vancouver as well. In New Zealand, the three-year-long Campaign began in June 1, 2016, with 59 councils and community groups joining hands with WasteMINZ, which is a membership-based organisation with over 1,000 members from waste, resource recovery and contaminated land sectors in the country.

As part of our continuous coverage of the Christchurch City Council 2016 Triennial Elections, we have published a short biography, the vision and picture of all the candidates for the Council and Community Board seats in our latest issue i.e. Issue 7, September 7 - September 20, 2016. [almost all as some replies were still awaited at the time of publishing]

The need for local government is the basic recognition of the fact that not all communities are the same, nor do they have the same issues. Thus, while Parliament is elected to deal with issues relevant to New Zealand and its people as a nation, local government enables democratic decision-making by and for local communities. It makes decisions about local issues and services, having regard to local needs and priorities.